Results of NO MEDICATION

I've gone 28 days with no BP meds and did a tabulation of my numbers. THe 120 readings averaged:140.7/84.3

How's THAT for a borderline systolic.

In any case, I got a teeny bit scared to carry that around with my proven collection of plaques, MAYBE, so I went to the final leg of my trial: it will be several weeks of just 50 mg. HCTZ. I'd been getting low numbers with 50 mg. losartan (Cozaar) and 50 mg. HCTZ for the last year...except in the doctor's office.

The monotherapy with the ARB was a bust with slightly higher numbers than with NOTHING.

Once I get my thiazide numbers, I'll make a decision...nothing, thiazide, or the combo therapy.

Did that first HCTZ last night open the floodgates all night, or WHAT?

Its interesting you found your bp was slightly higher with the ARB than with nothing. When I was first trying drugs to see which would work, I found that several of them actually raised my bp, as did increasing the dosage of some things that worked at a lower level. This seems counterintuitive, but was what happened with me. Glad to see is wasn't just my body being contrary.

mrmojo,
In both trials my weight went up about 6-8 pounds in the first week and then very gradually came back down to near normal...but stayed a couple pounds high.
It seems that thiazides have a rebound effect and then the body gets back to almost normal.

Headache today...I don't know whether it's the diuretic or the cheap wine I started drinking 2 glasses of yesterday...or a little of both. (I need to keep my HDL'S up.)